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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
The missions: You play as the Soviets, Allies, Japanese, or Yuriko, for 3 missions each.For the Soviets, all you really do is some minor guerrilla-type actions, attacking FutureTech and exposing some of their war crimes to the world. World doesn't really respond. That's it.For the Allies, you deal with putting down aggressive actions by the Japanese Shogun, with Tatsu helping you. His betrayal is obvious from the second mission. You defeat him, that's it.For the Japanese, Tatsu is working with the Shogun to push the Allies completely out of Japan and re-establish the Empire and begin to rebuild.For Yuriko, you break out of the facility that "created" you, then break out of the FutureTech Allied prison camp, then break back into the facility.The Yuriko campaign really shines brightest. The interface changes, with the camera and control focused only on Yuriko. The only problems here is that there is no minimap and that you can't see distant enemies off screen. Yuriko becomes insanely more powerful than she was in the base game, as well as having many powers that provide lots of fun in the game, particularly tossing objects about.I read a review from EuroGamer complaining about the game's difficulty.They perfectly sum up the entire experience of the game: "why wouldn't we want to play another stretch of the Command & Conquer series' wackiest RTS offshoot? Well, perhaps because it's p*ss-boilingly frustrating.""The very first mission is a baffling exercise in face-palming idiocy - a poorly designed onslaught in which confusion repeatedly leads to death. The failure conditions are so hard to control, and so utterly galling, that there's no reason why you'd want to continue playing. Towards the end of the mission the level instructions specifically tell you to avoid engaging the units that you have pass to get out. This is bad enough, but they're sickeningly over-powered. You die again and again. It's as if you're being punished for thinking you want to play some more Red Alert 3. Finally, miraculously, you manage to dodge enough of the instant-death missiles to escape the level. No clever problem-solving required, just run for your life and hope for a lucky break.It's one of the worst opening levels to an RTS game in memory, and it must be completed to open up two of the other campaigns." The first mission involves taking a militia force of Soviet conscripts and flak troopers, and barrelling through Allied infantry, tanks, aircraft, everything of the sort. Then comes the final bit, where you have to wander aimlessly around a maze to rescue Soviet scientists, while the Pacifier deploys into an artillery position with EXTREME range reminiscent of Red Alert 1's Allied Cruiser, complete with splash damage.There IS no strategy involved; you must RUN THROUGH an Allied base as fast as you can. I had an army of a dozen Flak troopers, Conscripts, and Tesla troopers, along with three Soviet Scientists. By mission's end, I was simply rushing the Scientists through the enemy bases. ONE scientist survived, with half-health.Commander's Challenge is only remotely like Global Strike in "Kane's Wrath". You must fight various challenges with impossible Par Score times (which give you nothing for beating the unrealistic time), and unlock new units to use for each of the three sides you can use in a battle.The challenges, like the game itself, are either insultingly easy, or impossible without cheating.I say now, in the name of RTS players not from Korea who play Starcraft 13 hours a day: Most of these missions cannot be beaten without downloading an unofficial "trainer" to cheat your way to victory.An example is the one where you unlock the Japanese Rocket Angel. In it, three enemies converge upon one of your bases, and proceed to brutalize you from all sides---land, sea, and air. You have a pre-built base already. This makes no difference, and being an RTS expert makes little difference---no matter how good you are, it is IMPOSSIBLE to fend off THREE TO FOUR SIMULTANEOUS attacks from the front of your base, the back, and the coast-line, by Soviets in their tanks and mortar bikes, Allies with their bombers and Mirage tanks and Athena cannons and Aircraft Carriers, and Japanese with their Steel Ronin and King Oni.Other missions typically involve SOME issue in balance, as the enemy seemingly either has vast loads of extra money, or pre-built buildings giving them an early advantage that you can almost never recover from.And yet while the mission to unlock the Rocket Angels is simply not possible, the mission to unlock APOCALYPSE TANKS is among one of the easiest in the games---your enemy wastes all his money on Apocalypse tanks, which he sends against you in small packs, easily torn apart by a solid base defense.For most missions, there is no strategy involved---you must simply rely upon the same set of tactics for the entire mission, or else you fail.Case in point: A mission where you unlock the King Oni. Your base is separated from the Japanese by layers of walls, which the enemy slowly breaks through, giving you time to set up a defense.Absolutely nothing works once they reach you except Tanya. With the small amount of funds you have, the only solution is her. Tanks will be instantly killed by the King Oni's charge, and air units are completely useless against them.One of the worst issues that this expansion pack is completely useless in regards to canon. In no way does it expand upon unanswered questions, like Dr Zelinski talking about a collapse in the time-space continuum, which happened in Yuri's Revenge, and Yuriko is STILL a mystery---we barely get any backstory into WHY she is, or if she's related to the program which produced Yuri.
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